A new "feature" in Ubuntu Lucid called Plymouth has been put in place that interferes with console boot up messages, whether the framebuffer is on or not. Not exactly what one would like on a linux server.

/etc/init/plymouth.conf contains:

  # plymouth provides a boot splash screen on the system console using
  # the kernel framebuffer device.  On boot, this is nominally started by
  # the initramfs so the pre-start script, script and post-start script
  # parts are actually not run.  These are normally run on shutdown instead.

Attempting to remove plymouth is fraught with peril:

  # apt-get -s remove plymouth
  ...
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
  acpid console-setup cron dmsetup e2fsprogs grub hostname ifupdown initramfs-tools initscripts kbd
  linux-image-2.6.31-19-virtual linux-image-2.6.32-22-virtual linux-image-virtual logrotate
  module-init-tools mountall netbase ntp ntpdate openssh-server plymouth procps rsyslog
  ubuntu-minimal udev upstart ureadahead util-linux x11-common

A normal reaction to the above is "WTF!". Indeed there are multiple bugs filed against
this madness. Clearly at least one Ubuntu maintainer is smoking crack.

A quick fix for Lucid server systems, remove the plymouth upstart scripts:

  # cd
  # tar -czvf init-backup.tar.gz /etc/init
  # rm -f /init/plymouth.*
  # shutdown -r now

And hooray, along with the text console fixes, we now have an almost normal looking boot console for servers.

Update, a more civilized way to disable plymouth has just been posted. There is apparently a "noplymouth" kernel boot option. Trying it out with the plymouth upstart scripts in place, it appears to work great. In /boot/grub/menu.lst:

# defoptions=nosplash nomodeset vga=0x314 INIT_VERBOSE=yes init=/sbin/init -v noplymouth

And the kernel options after the UUID=...

ro nosplash noplymouth INIT_VERBOSE=yes init=/sbin/init -v  

One will notice however, most upstart services start up with an erie silence.

Next post: Fixing upstart for Lucid server.